Molly Parker
JournalistMolly Parker was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award earlier this year for their months long investigations into Choate. Those were conducted while Parker was a member of the Lee Enterprises Midwest Public Service Journalism team.
Prior to accepting that position last year, she was a reporter at the Southern Illinoisan in Carbondale since 2014. In that role, Parker exposed a housing crisis in Cairo, the state’s southernmost city, that resulted in a federal takeover of the county’s housing authority and the relocation of about 400 people from two dilapidated, WWII-era apartment complexes.
Parker is also an assistant professor of journalism at Southern Illinois University and a distinguished fellow with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network, which creates partnerships between nonprofit and local newsrooms. She joins Capitol News Illinois on July 19.
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Document trove confirms ongoing reporting of abuse at state-run facility, staff’s ‘sense of impunity’
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Inspector general wants authority to add health care workers fired for misconduct to state registry
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For years, residents at the Illinois facility received scant treatment for their developmental disabilities and mental illnesses, then faced felonies for lashing out at staff.
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Watchdog report echoes reporting published earlier this year that revealed a culture of cover-ups
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No one was charged when staff were caught on a 911 tape threatening violence against resident who has developmental disabilities
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Governor resists, but does not rule out, calls to close Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center after investigation
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The 24-year-old with developmental disabilities was brutally beaten by his caretakers inside a state-run facility with a long history of patient abuse.
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A few years ago, Illinois adopted regulations for high-volume horizontal fracking, but it was slow to get the permitting process up and running. Those...